Story Tips From the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, December 2017

Jenny Woodbery/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

An ORNL-led team developed a variable control mechanism to enable precision de-icing on urban roads, using roadway data from the City of Knoxville in Tennessee.

Credit: Jason Richards/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

An ORNL-led team developed a variable control mechanism to enable precision de-icing on urban roads, using roadway data from the City of Knoxville in Tennessee. Credit: Jason Richards/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

While studying a specific vitamin B12 derivative, an ORNL-led team discovered a “helper molecule” (shown in red) in an often-overlooked region of the vitamin’s structure, an area that critically determines how enzymes break down toxic chlorinated solvents.

A research team, including scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Ames Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, illuminated the mechanisms that create stability and strength in a new class of aluminum alloys.

Weather—Precision de-icing

A precision approach to treating snow- and ice-covered roads, developed by an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team, aims to help cities effectively allocate resources and expand coverage on roadways. The combined software and hardware technology analyzes existing city data and uses high-resolution modeling to identify areas most vulnerable to drivers during hazardous weather conditions. The novel approach features a variable control mechanism designed for the spreader on salt trucks to optimize the amount of melting, or de-icing, agent applied to roads, which minimizes waste and increases the number of roads treated. “Across the United States, cities are collectively spending about $1.5 billion on winter road maintenance,” ORNL’s Olufemi (Femi) Omitaomu said. “Our goal is to give cities an intelligent approach to managing their resources effectively.” [Contact: Ashley Huff, (865) 241-6451; huffac@ornl.gov]

Caption: An ORNL-led team developed a variable control mechanism to enable precision de-icing on urban roads, using roadway data from the City of Knoxville in Tennessee. Credit: Jason Richards/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Video Caption: An ORNL-led team developed a variable control mechanism to enable precision de-icing on urban roads, using roadway data from the City of Knoxville in Tennessee. Credit: Jenny Woodbery/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Biology—Bacterial breakdown

An Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led team discovered a function of certain microbes that produces a new derivative of vitamin B12, which is crucial to a cell’s ability to perform life-sustaining metabolic activities. Their findings could ultimately open avenues for novel environmental and water clean-up strategies. “Microbes used to break down contaminants require specific vitamins to function,” said Frank Löffler, UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Environmental Biotechnology, who led the research. While studying a specific vitamin B12 derivative, the team revealed modifications of an often-overlooked region of the vitamins’ molecular structure, known as the lower base. This lower base structure determines the function of enzymes that break down toxic chlorinated solvents. “This discovery has potential to enhance the efficacy of current bioremediation approaches, plus it could open new opportunities to affect the progression of certain human diseases,” Löffler added. The team’s findings were published in Nature Chemical Biology. [Contact: Sara Shoemaker, (865) 576-9219; shoemakerms@ornl.gov]

Caption #1: While studying a specific vitamin B12 derivative, an ORNL-led team discovered a “helper molecule” (shown in red) in an often-overlooked region of the vitamin’s structure, an area that critically determines how enzymes break down toxic chlorinated solvents. Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Caption #2: A bacterial species known as Desulfitobacterium hafniense uses unsubstituted purine to form purinyl-cobamide, a “helper molecule” required to enzymatically break down environmental toxins. Credit: Frank Löffler/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Materials—When alloys attract

A multi-laboratory research team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutrons, x-rays and computational modeling to “see” the atomic structures inside a new class of aluminum-cerium alloys created for automotive and aerospace applications. The structures occur when alloy components that have a high reaction affinity, or likelihood to bond, are combined. The attraction helps create the materials’ superior stability and strength. “The Al-Ce base alloy forms architectures that are inherently stable at elevated temperatures and under load,” said ORNL’s Orlando Rios, whose team also experimented with the alloy’s composition. “We found that adding minute amounts of other elements, such as 0.4 percent weight magnesium, achieved significant increases in alloy strength.” The research was conducted through the Critical Materials Institute, which has been developing high-value applications for cerium to boost the economics of mining rare-earth materials. The team’s paper was featured on the cover of Materials Horizons. [Contact: Kim Askey, (865) 946-1861; askeyka@ornl.gov]

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An international team of scientists --- including several researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory -- - has discovered an anode battery material with superfast charging and stable operation over many thousands of cycles.

Vector polarizers are a light filtering technology hidden behind the operation of many optical systems. They can be found, for instance, in sunglasses, LCD screens, microscopes, microprocessors, laser machining and more. Optical physicists published details of their new vector polarizer design this week in APL Photonics. The newly proposed design is a major advance in polarization technology because it enables flexible filtering of a wide range of light sources and generation of new light states.

Scientists have come up with a way to massively speed up the ordering process for self-assembling materials. The resulting ultra-small, well-ordered patterns could be used in the fabrication of microelectronics, antireflective surfaces, magnetic data storage systems, and fluid-flow devices.

Researchers from Stanford University, two Department of Energy national labs and the battery manufacturer Samsung created a comprehensive picture of how the same chemical processes that give cathodes their high capacity are also linked to changes in atomic structure that sap performance.

A new Petascale Data Transfer Node project aims to to achieve regular disk-to-disk, end-to-end transfer rates of one petabyte per week between major supercomputing facilities, which translates to achievable throughput rates of about 15 Gbps on real world science data sets.

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NAU Regents' Professor Bruce Hungate, director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss), recently joined a new initiative lead by LLNL to study how the soil microbiome controls the mechanisms that regulate the stabilization of the organic matter in soil.

Scientists pause each afternoon at Kirtland Air Force Base in Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, awaiting the daily lightning flash and unmistakable floor jolt that accompanies a Z shot

The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a five-year, $4.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help industrial, commercial, institutional and utility entities evaluate and install highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) technologies.CHP, also known as cogeneration, is a single system that produces both thermal energy and electricity.

ECS, in a continued partnership with the Toyota Research Institute of North America (TRINA), a division of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), is requesting proposals from young professors and scholars pursuing innovative electrochemical research in green energy technology.

John Carlisle has been named the director of Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), a program aimed at accelerating job creation through innovation, based at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

This fall, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced nearly $4.7 million in funding for the department's Argonne National Laboratory across 16 projects in three divisions. Four of those TCF awards, representing more than $1 million in funds, are slated for Argonne's Nuclear Engineering division.

Southern Research has been selected to receive nearly $1.7 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding to develop a new, cost-efficient gasifier capable of converting low-grade coal into synthesis gas (syngas) that can be used in a number of applications.

The world's most advanced particle accelerator for investigating the quark structure of matter is gearing up to begin its first experiments following official completion of an upgrade to triple its original design energy. The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility is now back online and ramping up for the start of experiments.